Britain and the European Union are once again heading for a standoff over post-Brexit trading rules governed by the Northern Ireland protocol. Here's everything you need to know about how we got here — and what might be coming next.
Agreed as part of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement in 2019, the protocol was drawn up to protect the EU’s single market after Britain exited in January 2021.
Both U.K. and EU negotiators agreed that it would be too difficult on economic and security grounds to enforce EU trade rules on the land border between Northern Ireland, part of the U.K., and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member.
Instead, the EU’s customs and sanitary controls would be applied on British goods as they arrived at ports in Northern Ireland, which would remain part of the EU’s single market for goods.
The arrangement offered two big advantages: Checks would overwhelmingly be in one direction only, whereas enforcement on the Irish border would have required checks on shipments in both directions; and Northern Ireland producers would gain a unique ability to export barrier-free both to the U.K. and the EU, a potential sales point for inward investment.
So what's not to like?
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Here we go again: The latest UK-EU Brexit row unpicked – POLITICO
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